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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: omicron13 on April 12, 2005, 08:29:04 AM

Title: Questions about avast!
Post by: omicron13 on April 12, 2005, 08:29:04 AM
Hello, I've recently started using Avast! 4.6 pro and i think its great! I mean it isn't as  resource consuming as the other AVs and packs a lot of tool in it self(plus those skins are cool too)..But i had some questions, can someone please answer those for me..Well here goes:-

1) Sometimes when all the Shields are on, the network indicator in my Win Xp task bar( you know that small icon with two flashing pc's) indicates that bandwidth is being used, where as  i am not browsing the net at all. I have some monthly bandwidth restriction, so is this going to take out too much bandwidth? Why is it happening at all"

2)I often get alert messages like "LSASS ATTACK' blocked/ "DCOM EXPLOIT BLOCKED" from im address like xxx.xxx.xxx:135(always port 135) i've searche the net and found that this is Avast! protection against a certain security vulnerability in Windows, But sometimes even the addresses of the LAN network im connected to are shown . Does this mean that they were trying to infiltrate/exploit? And if i turn off the network shield will the DCOM/LSASS exploits harm my pc?(because i never had any firewall on my pc and there have never  been extensive damages).

3) What is the difference between normal scan and boot time scan?

Thats all. It will be really helpful if someone answers these questions....

Thanks.
Title: Re: Questions about avast!
Post by: galooma on April 12, 2005, 08:49:51 AM
Hi and welcome omicron13,
the traffic could be anything but if you are worried then for a whole host of reasons you should have a firewall. that makes your pc less visible to others and allows you to disable all traffic for lengths of time when you are not using pc without logging off which reduces again your exposure to malware.
Boot time scan is someting you do when you get alarms and cannot remove /move to chest because files are in use. the scan at boottime allows avast to run when most files are not in use and therefore enables removal or relocation.
Title: Re: Questions about avast!
Post by: Lisandro on April 12, 2005, 02:06:51 PM
1) Sometimes when all the Shields are on, the network indicator in my Win Xp task bar( you know that small icon with two flashing pc's) indicates that bandwidth is being used, where asĀ  i am not browsing the net at all. I have some monthly bandwidth restriction, so is this going to take out too much bandwidth? Why is it happening at all"
Maybe avast is trying to update but we can't be sure.
If you use TCPView you can see what is trying to connect the internet on each time (www.sysinternals.com).

2)I often get alert messages like "LSASS ATTACK' blocked/ "DCOM EXPLOIT BLOCKED" from im address like xxx.xxx.xxx:135(always port 135) i've searche the net and found that this is Avast! protection against a certain security vulnerability in Windows, But sometimes even the addresses of the LAN network im connected to are shown . Does this mean that they were trying to infiltrate/exploit? And if i turn off the network shield will the DCOM/LSASS exploits harm my pc?(because i never had any firewall on my pc and there have neverĀ  been extensive damages).
It's not good stay without a firewall. Network Shield is a protection against known Internet worms/attacks. It analyses all network traffic and scans it for malicious contents. It protects you from internet worms that spread themselves via various security holes in your system. Typicaly these kind of viruses don't infect files but instead  they attack running processes on your PC (either Windows components or some server programs like SQL Server, IIS etc.). These kind of attacks are not easily catched by ordinary antivirus during file or mail scanning. It is not a duplicate work with Standard Shield. Basically, it covers all Internet worms. Such as Win32.CodeRed, Win32.SQLSlammer, Win32.Blaster, in32.Welchia (Nachi) and Win32.Sasser.

3) What is the difference between normal scan and boot time scan?
Boot time scanning has fully access to files but not all the archive unpackers are loaded (drivers limitations).
On-demand scanning (normal as you say) could have some 'blocked' (access denied) files but all archive files (*.zip, etc.) are fully scanned. Anyway, don't worry that much because boot time scanning covers all the most common archive file types...
Title: Re: Questions about avast!
Post by: amna on April 27, 2005, 12:34:49 PM
hi,
how do i start a boot scan
amna
Title: Re: Questions about avast!
Post by: DavidR on April 27, 2005, 12:52:39 PM
It depends on your OS if you can do this (not available in win95, win98, winME).

Run the Simple User Interface (the bit you run scans from) open the menu and schedule a boot-time scan.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/for-dwr/boottime.jpg)
Title: Re: Questions about avast!
Post by: amna on April 27, 2005, 01:58:02 PM
hi
i have a 4.5 home edition but i dont see any screen as shown above.i dont have a network shield tab also.though i recieve a network shield mesage od "DCOM EXPLOIT BLOCKED".
i have updated the version OF AVAST.i also dont know  where to turn the network shield message off.
amna
Title: Re: Questions about avast!
Post by: DavidR on April 27, 2005, 02:16:55 PM
Quote
i have a 4.5 home edition but i dont see any screen as shown above.
Where are you looking?

Right click the avast icon, Start avast! Antivirus, click on the Menu or right click on the window. You should now see the menu above, it may look different, I am probably using a different skin and windows display setting to you.

I thought your question was about scheduling a boot-time scan!

Again, where are you looking for a Network Shield Tab? See image, this is where Network Shield is modified, click the customize... button, see image and untick Show warning messages.